Heal Our Broken Souls
There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead
to heal our broken souls.
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Holding Hope for Restoration
“Join me in holding hope for restoration.
Join me in prayers and intentions for peace.
Join me in offering our service toward justice and a world of mutual reciprocity.”
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We Can’t Will Ourselves to Be Fearless
“It is very difficult not to be fearful. And I think there’s a reason that every spiritual tradition, and certainly the holy Bible itself, admonishes us not to be afraid again and again; it’s that fear is a great obstacle. It gets in our way. But we can’t will ourselves to be fearless. And so I think it’s good to be able to name the terror, to say, ‘What is terrifying you right now?'”
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God Is the initiator
“In this humanistic age we suppose man is the initiator and God is the responder. But the living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’ And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to His secret presence and working within us. The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening.”
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Your Refuge
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. -
What I Learned from My Depression
“During a recent meeting for worship at Orange Grove I was led to share a message about depression. It has become clear to me that some highly gifted people, including some Friends, have suffered from this affliction….
When Fox spoke of an ‘ocean of darkness,’ he was using a metaphor that vividly describes what many people experience during depression – a feeling of drowning in an unending sea of despair.
But Fox also experienced an ‘ocean of light’ – a sense of being buoyed up in a sea of divine love so intense it overcomes this feeling of isolation and hopelessness.”
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Darkness Helps Us Recognize the Light
“In this century we have been newly filled by the conscious knowledge of our own darkness – that we carry this darkness within us. We no longer need to project our darkness outward into demons or scapegoats – or, if we do, we know we are evoking disaster. It is by encounter with our own darkness that we recognise the light. It is the light itself which shows us the darkness – and both are summoned within us.”
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The Purpose of Darkness
“What is your first instinct – your first act – when you walk into a dark room? Mine is to find a light switch… to turn on a light! I want to know where I am, to see where I’m going. I want to be able to find my way.
In the creation story, the first thing God did was to flip on a light switch. God spoke, and light came. The earth was formless, dark and empty, and God spoke light into being. ‘God called the light Day and the darkness God called Night.'”
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God Upholds Us
“Our strength or help is only in God; but then it is near us, it is in us – a force superior to all possible opposition – a force that never was, nor can be foiled. We are free to stand in this unconquerable ability, and defeat the powers of darkness; or to turn from it, and be foiled and overcome. When we stand, we know it is God alone upholds us.”
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Facing the Unacceptable Parts of Yourself
“If we set our hearts on goodness as a personal goal, it means that we have to ignore or suppress all the other parts of ourselves that do not fit into our ideal of goodness. That was what George Fox had already done and he was actually shocked when, on the first part of his inward journey, he came upon the dark and unacceptable parts of himself. Like Simone Weil, the twentieth century mystic, he found that he knew from the inside a potential for all possible crimes. His fantasies were guided by no one but himself, but he quickly made the acquaintance of the things inside him that could be bestial, murderous and depraved.”
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